Stanley Cup Final blog: Carter Verhaeghe

Florida Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe will be keeping his own blog throughout the 2023 Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. He will check in regularly with behind-the-scenes access.

In his fifth entry, Verhaeghe discusses preparations for Game 5, the first elimination game of the best-of-7 series, which will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS). The Panthers lost 3-2 in Game 4, their furious third-period rally falling just short to put them in a position to have to win three straight elimination games for the second time this postseason; they erased a 3-1 deficit against the top-seeded Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference First Round.

Florida held a spirited practice Monday at T-Mobile Arena but was without four key players from Game 4: forwards Matthew Tkachuk and Nick Cousins, and defensemen Brandon Montour and Radko Gudas.

The message here for us is to just rest, get as much rest as we can and go out and play a game, one game, and go from there.

Look, there is not really any pressure on us. People have written us off since the beginning of the playoffs. That is the situation and the way it has been all along. I mean, they have everything to lose, we don't.

For us, I think there is only one way to play, and that is free and loose. Once you start tightening up, things go south. We just want to be relaxed and play the best game we can. I think it helps that we know what it takes from being in this situation before and understanding you just have to win a game and then go and do it again.

We know the Stanley Cup will be in the building tomorrow night, and that means they are one win away from winning the series. They are going to be feeling the nerves and dealing with all the things that go along with a night like that. We should be OK if we relax, keep having fun and playing good hockey.

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We know what the atmosphere is going to be in this building. We have experienced it in the first two games of this series, but now we are into the series and we know what to expect. We are just going to go out there and play a hockey game and try to get one win and get it back home for another game and see what happens from there.

Practice was good today. We had a lot of guys missing, but that Is hockey at this time of the year. You don't really think about it. That is the way it is with every team.

For us, we just have to do what we need to do with whomever is in the lineup. We will go out there and play hockey. In hockey, there is a lot of things you can`t control and you have to concentrate on controlling the things you can, like the way you play the game. We are all comfortable playing with each other. The lines have been switched around during the playoffs and during the regular season. We have some really good players on this team, players that can fill in for whatever is missing. I mean, everyone has certain attributes they bring to the team and if we exploit those to their fullest, then we will have a really good chance to be successful.

I think we just know what we've got to do and how to play to win, and I think that's how we're going to play in Game 5. I think that is how we are going into it.

For now, it is about getting as much rest and recovery as we can and then try to come into the game with as much energy as possible and doing whatever we can to extend the series to another game.